Will HR victims under Marcos finally get compensation?

ABS-CBN News

MANILA - Will victims of human rights violations during the Marcos regime finally get compensation this year?

Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chairwoman Etta Rosales said she is hoping that by the first quarter of 2014, the government will finally be able to complete its claimants' board and the Implementing Rules and Regulations concerning Republic Act 13068 or Human Right Victims Reparation and Recognition Act, more popularly known as the "Marcos Compensation Law."

This is more than a year after President Aquino signed the law in February 2013.

Under the law, human rights victims during the Martial Law years will be given compensation from the P10-billion fund which came from Marcos' ill gotten wealth.

Victims who can claim compensation include about 10,000 people, subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and execution during the Marcos regime, and their relatives who filed and won a class-action suit against Marcos in 1995 in Hawaii.

Marcos, who was overthrown in a popular revolt in 1986, fled the country and died in exile in Hawaii.

The claimants' board will be the one to determine who are the legitimate claimants, as well as how much will each one receive depending on the extent of the human rights abuses they had experienced.

Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares, a member of the bicameral conference committee, earlier said victims of human rights violations during the Martial Law regime of former President Marcos will get an estimated P500,000 each with the passage of the Marcos Compensation Bill.